Peanuts first originated in Brazil. Peanut butter was created in the 1890s by a St. Louis physician as a soft protein substitute for people with poor teeth. Peanuts and peanut butter contain mostly beneficial monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Jif peanut butter (the peanut butter we used) contains 2% or less of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil and fully hydrogenated vegetable oil. Peanut butter is required to have a minimum of 90% peanuts in it.
The purpose of this experiment was to compare the amount of fat in peanuts versus peanut butter.
Procedure
We heated a 1000 ml beaker 2/3 full with water on a hotplate. Then, we ground 10 grams of peanuts, mixed them with 10 grams of sodium sulfate and added this to a 250 ml beaker with 75 ml of hexane. We clamped this to a ring stand and attached a condenser. We lowered the flask into a water bath and allowed it to come to a slow boil and heated it for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes we turned off the hotplate and removed the water bath. Next, we filtered the hot solution using a Büchner funnel. We poured the filtered hexane solution into a 100 ml round bottom flask. We removed the hexane from the solution using a rotary evaporator. After the hexane evaporated, we measured the volume of the remaining fat. We then repeated the whole process using 10 grams of peanut butter instead of 10 grams of ground peanuts.
Results
Fat from Peanuts (mL)
Fat from Peanut Butter (mL)
7.5mL
6mL
The fat from the peanuts was a thick whitish yellow liquid with approximately less than one quarter of a mL of water on the bottom. The fat from the peanut butter was a thinner whitish yellow liquid with more water on the bottom. Both liquids were very viscous.
Conclusions
Surprisingly enough, we found that there is more fat in peanuts than in processed peanut butter. Even though unsaturated fat is added in the process of making peanut butter, there is still more fat in plain peanuts. Perhaps peanut butter manufacturers only use some of the peanut and not the entire peanut. During our procedure the peanut butter mixed with hexane and sodium sulfate took longer to boil than the peanut solution and also took a significantly longer time to filter using the Büchner funnel. Perhaps next we could extract fat from different types of peanut butter and find out if different types of peanut butter have more fat than others. The procedure might have worked better on the peanuts and that is why we yielded more fat than we did from the peanut butter.
Table of Contents
Extraction of Fat from Peanuts and Peanut Butter
Cameron, Charlotte
Introduction
Peanuts first originated in Brazil. Peanut butter was created in the 1890s by a St. Louis physician as a soft protein substitute for people with poor teeth. Peanuts and peanut butter contain mostly beneficial monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Jif peanut butter (the peanut butter we used) contains 2% or less of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil and fully hydrogenated vegetable oil. Peanut butter is required to have a minimum of 90% peanuts in it.The purpose of this experiment was to compare the amount of fat in peanuts versus peanut butter.
Procedure
We heated a 1000 ml beaker 2/3 full with water on a hotplate. Then, we ground 10 grams of peanuts, mixed them with 10 grams of sodium sulfate and added this to a 250 ml beaker with 75 ml of hexane. We clamped this to a ring stand and attached a condenser. We lowered the flask into a water bath and allowed it to come to a slow boil and heated it for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes we turned off the hotplate and removed the water bath. Next, we filtered the hot solution using a Büchner funnel. We poured the filtered hexane solution into a 100 ml round bottom flask. We removed the hexane from the solution using a rotary evaporator. After the hexane evaporated, we measured the volume of the remaining fat. We then repeated the whole process using 10 grams of peanut butter instead of 10 grams of ground peanuts.Results
Conclusions
Surprisingly enough, we found that there is more fat in peanuts than in processed peanut butter. Even though unsaturated fat is added in the process of making peanut butter, there is still more fat in plain peanuts. Perhaps peanut butter manufacturers only use some of the peanut and not the entire peanut. During our procedure the peanut butter mixed with hexane and sodium sulfate took longer to boil than the peanut solution and also took a significantly longer time to filter using the Büchner funnel. Perhaps next we could extract fat from different types of peanut butter and find out if different types of peanut butter have more fat than others. The procedure might have worked better on the peanuts and that is why we yielded more fat than we did from the peanut butter.
References
Nutrition Basics. 2004. The Peanut Institute. 30 May 2008. http://www.peanut-institute.org/NutritionBasics.html
JIF FAQ page. 30 May 2008. http://www.jif.com/sitewide/faq.asp